CoWet: research and traininghttp://cowet.eu
<p>Controlling the spreading of complex fluids on microstructured substrates is a great challenge at the crossroad of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Engineering/Industry. Complex liquids are liquids that are structured at different length scales and thus have various internal degrees of freedom, e.g. dispersions, polymer melts or solutions, surfactant solutions, emulsions, foams, or other liquids that show a non-Newtonian behavior. Complex surfaces include solid or soft substrates showing ordered or random topological patterns, chemical heterogeneities, porosity with typical length scales in the micro- or nanometer range, or adaptable or switchable coatings. Also soluble or viscoelastic surfaces are of significance for various applications.<br />Why this research field is so important and attractive? Our understanding of how complex liquids spread over micro-structured or smart surfaces is still to be developed. Knowledge of complex wetting opens the gate to the field of micro-flows governed by capillary and intermolecular forces: the phenomena at the nano- and micro- scales near the contact region significantly influence the macro-flows. Modelling of complex wetting precedes technological advances in chemical, pharmaceutical, environmental and food industry and ensures the leadership of European companies in these wide areas. It is essential in many conventional and emerging technologies involving micro- and nanofluidics, functional printing and coating, regeneration medicine and the development of new methods of treating live threatening diseases, in which complex liquids and patterned substrates are used to manipulate the flow and deposition of material, to control, optimize and intensify novel technological processes.</p>
<p>Why this study is so challenging and difficult? The main issue is that spreading processes take place at molecular and sub-microscopic length scales, while most observations are macroscopic. This gap needs to be bridged and it forms one of the core aims of CoWet. Wetting and spreading are a result of the interplay between short ranged intermolecular forces both at equilibrium and dynamic wetting processes at the microscopic scale as well as hydrodynamic forces at the macroscopic scale. All this makes the study of static and dynamic wetting a multiscale problem that needs to be addressed from various perspectives.<br />The CoWet network will focus its activities on interfaces at which liquids interact with the surrounding media, solid, vapour, other liquids via corresponding interfaces. Such interfaces and the associated interfacial phenomena are ubiquitous in our daily lives and represent key technologies in many established and emerging fields. We recognize five fundamental factors influencing interactions at a liquid-solid, liquid-vapour and vapour-liquid interfaces which shape the research goals of the Consortium.</p>Moodle(c) 2018 CoWet: research and traininghttp://cowet.eu/theme/image.php?theme=essential&amp;component=core&amp;rev=1474032194&amp;image=i%2Frsssitelogomoodlehttp://cowet.eu
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